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An Investigation on the Fabric Type Dependency of the Crack Damage Thresholds in Brittle Rocks

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Abstract

Fabric-guided micro-fracturing phenomenon in brittle rocks and its effect on crack damage thresholds remains subject to continuing research. The available fabric in rocks can act as a motivator for nucleation and/or extension and interaction of micro-fractures in a preferred orientation, or as a suppressor for growth of micro-cracks in a given direction by different mechanisms such as compliance (stiffness contrast) or preferred orientation of minerals and their boundaries. While anisotropy of brittle rocks in terms of their mechanical strengths can play a significant role in the stability of underground openings, the understanding of the dependency of crack initiation (CI) and crack propagation (CD) thresholds on the available fabric in rocks can improve predictions of the extension and density of micro-fracturing in different directions in the walls of underground openings. To better understand the fabric-guided micro-fracturing phenomenon, and also to study the effect of fabric types available in brittle rocks on their anisotropic behaviour, four types of brittle rocks with different types of fabric are investigated in terms of crack damage anisotropy in this paper. The rocks that are chosen for this study are limestone from the Cobourg Formation, Queenston shale, Olkiluoto mica gneiss and Lac du Bonnet granite. For each rock type, CI and CD thresholds are identified from the unconfined compressive strength testing data. The mechanical behaviour of the four rock types are investigated at each damage stress level and the contributing factors to the isotropic or anisotropic behaviour of the rocks at different crack damage thresholds are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Canada (NWMO) and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for supporting this research. Preparation and testing of the Cobourg limestone specimens was completed by Blain Conlon and Gilles Brisson at CanmetMINING, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario and is greatly appreciated. The discussions with Matthew Perras from ETH Zurich and Connor Langford from Hatch Mott MacDonald significantly helped in the preparation of this paper. Special thanks to Mark Jensen and Tom Lam from NWMO, Michelle van der Pouw Kraan and Florian Amann for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GeoEngineering Centre, Queen’s University, 36 Union Street, Miller Hall, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada

    E. Ghazvinian & M. S. Diederichs

  2. CanmetMINING, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    D. Labrie

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    C. D. Martin

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  1. E. Ghazvinian
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Correspondence to E. Ghazvinian.

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Ghazvinian, E., Diederichs, M.S., Labrie, D. et al. An Investigation on the Fabric Type Dependency of the Crack Damage Thresholds in Brittle Rocks. Geotech Geol Eng 33, 1409–1429 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-015-9909-1

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